SAN FRANCISCO — Unlike his opposition Sunday night, Jake Peavy’s not 19 years old. He was making his major-league debut when Dodgers phenom Julio Urias was a 2-year-old. But four teams and 15 major-league seasons later, now Peavy’s paying the price of a professional baseball career that’s spanned nearly as long as Urias’ life.
The veteran right-hander was dealing with a stiff neck all week, a kink that forced Peavy to skip his bullpen and put his start in question as recently as Saturday. But two off-days and quality time with the Giants’ training staff provided enough of a bandage.
So Peavy showed up for work on Sunday with a mission: Not to pitch like he was 19 years old again, but fight like it.
“I wanted to go out and show our division rivals that they’ve got a fight on their hands,” Peavy said. “I think that’s the competitor in you. I showed up today thinking I was going to win.”
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He could only battle the stiff neck for so long, ultimately pulling himself out of the game after six shutout innings and 90 pitches. But Peavy’s (3-6, 5.83 ERA) performance was enough to complement Brandon Belt’s two-run homer, and the Giants (38-26) brushed aside the Dodgers (33-31), 2-1, on Sunday night. The win ballooned the Giants’ record to 15-7 in one-run games, tying them for the most victories in those situations.
It’s still 135 less wins than Peavy, who became just the sixth active pitcher to notch 150 career wins. It’s a touchstone that doesn’t mean much to him, but perhaps more to the man who’s watched Peavy’s career blossom over the last 15 years.
“I think (150 wins stands for) consistency, longevity,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But you only get longevity if you’re good.”
And Peavy was in front of the national television audience, lowering his ERA to 1.82 in his last four starts. He retired 12 of the first 14 hitters he faced, save a couple of Chase Utley singles. The polarizing second baseman got a third hit off Peavy to start this sixth inning, and this one didn’t go further than 20 feet off first base.
Utley squibbed one to Belt, immediately igniting a footrace between two players who combine for 29 major-league seasons. Peavy was running in stride with Utley, and even craned his stiff neck over to coral Belt’s throw on the run. But as he turned back toward first base, Peavy tumbled onto his back.
Through all the acrobatics, he planted his glove on first base while falling down, and sold the out to first-base umpire John Hirschbeck. The call was shortly overturned, but even that wasn’t was going to sap the Giants’ energy after the play.
“Anytime you got a pitcher that’s laying out like that,” Belt said, “it’s pretty cool to see.
“Almost gets you pumped up a little bit.”
Belt wasn’t kidding. The momentum swing fully stretched itself when his bat met a flat slider from Urias, landing atop the right-field arcade for a two-run homer that was enough offense to decide the game. But even with the lead, Peavy ended his own evening after reaggravating his neck in the top half of the inning. The 35-year-old didn’t want to risk further injuring a finicky part of the body.
That’s a product of his maturation, even admitting after the game that he occasionally thinks back to that time 16 years ago. That time as a 19-year-old doing everything he could to become a major leaguer, much less a wunderkind like Urias.
But age didn’t win on Sunday night, experience did.
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